Revell Phantom FGR-2 1:48 – build review

Full Review with Geoff Coughlin (August 2019)

How did this happen!?

For one of my favourite aircraft and I suspect many of you too, don’t you just love the British Phantoms? Either the RAF’s FGR-2 or Royal Navy FG-1 (many were taken on by RAF squadrons after their time as fixed-wing assets on the carrier Ark Royal came to an end.

We’ve been going for 10 years in November 2019 and I can’t believe that we haven’t featured the Revell/Hasegawa 1:48 kit before – unbelievable! Well that stops now and I am already well into this build.

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HD VIDEO DEMOS

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Reference

I’m sure you will have your favourites when it comes to this aircraft and I have many books that’ll come in handy – here are a few of them. I hugely recommend any book by Ian Black and his Last of the Phantoms title is outstanding (as indeed are any of his “last of the…” series (e.g. Buccaneer, Jaguar).

So, what’s the plan?

Well, you always need one of these however basic the project. I just want to try and get the best out of what’s offered in the kit with no aftermarket accessories at all – none!

Some years ago I put together the F-4 Phantom II Osprey Modelling Guide with Neil Ashby and built this kit adding the Aires resin cockpit and a few other mods and what a faff the Aires resin is – it just didn’t fit!

Back to the Revell/Hasegawa offering… The kit parts look to be very good and the recessed detail is very fine. Take a look at the following photos I took when the aircraft was in service. I’ve annotated most of the pics to help identify features and areas of interest commonly seen on many RAF Phantom FGR-2s…

Here are some more…

This is exactly the look I’m going to be trying for with the finished model. I’ll use the No 56 Sqn decals in the kit but adapt them to try and create the look you see on XV501 in many of the above photos, so no shark mouth.

…and don’t forget, there’re two very detailed photo sets for the British Phantom FGR-2 in your SMN Photo Reference Library that will prove invaluable, especially when it comes to the cockpit and other areas of detail.

Let’s get into the build…